To Protect Long Island Sound, an Urban Connecticut Community Selects High-Tech Smart Sponge® Filters

“The Filter Project,” as Norwalk, Connecticut’s city officials call it, began as a natural outgrowth of the Long Island Soundkeeper’s mission of protecting the Sound’s ecosystem coupled with Norwalk’s commitment to clean up local waterways.  Hal Alvord, Director of Public Works in Norwalk, Connecticut, said that cleaning up polluted street runoff in storm water before it flows into the Long Island Sound was the highest priority of The Filter Project. The heart of this approximately $500,000 project involved fitting AbTech Industries’ filtration systems to storm drains in south Norwalk to catch trash, debris, animal waste, hydrocarbons, oil, and grease before they enter the Sound.

Westchester County Airport Installs AbTech’s Catch Basin Inserts to Protect Surrounding Waterways and Minimize Environmental Impacts

Westchester County Airport is the third in the nation to be certified by the ISO 14001 Standard. The airport’s ISO certified Airport Environmental Management System (AEMS) includes all activities at the airport, a 703-acre facility owned by Westchester County, providing corporate aviation, light general aviation, and commercial airline services with related aviation support facilities.

A significant part of the AEMS is the plan to protect waterways surrounding the airport from polluted runoff caused by chemicals such as fuel, oil, grease, and de-icing fluid. To minimize these potential environmental impacts, the county installed AbTech Industries’ catch basin inserts in the critical storm drains. The program started in 2002 with 18 Ultra-Urban ® Filters, produced by AbTech Industries. Because of the success of this pilot program, there are 54 Ultra-Urban Filters in place today.

AbTech’s Smart Sponge ® technology reduces damage from harmful contaminants spilling into Scarborough Beach’s bathing waters

Rhode Island’s Scarborough State Park Beach Stormwater Management Project- This stormwater management project was implemented to improve water quality at Scarborough State Park Beach, a popular recreation area that attracts over a half million people in the summer months. The beach is located in the coastal community of Narragansett, Washington County, Rhode Island, at the southern end of Narragansett Bay at Rhode Island Sound.

In 2003, Scarborough Beach closed six times because of high levels of contaminants. Following those closures, Rhode Island’s Departments of Transportation, Environmental Management, and Health formed a team committed to remedy the hazard. In June 2004, Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri officially launched the team project. The core of the solution involved diverting the runoff from Scarborough’s stormwater outfalls through pipes containing Smart Sponge® Plus, an intra-filter antimicrobial filtration material developed by AbTech Industries to promote and prolong the effective and efficient functioning of the filter while it removes contaminants from the runoff.